𝔽𝕒𝕟𝕓𝕠𝕪 - 𝕐𝕦𝕞𝕒𝕣𝕜

t h r e e

Mark's degree quickly started to take a backseat. While he still did the assignments, he didn't do them to as high of a standard as he used to. Writing became almost a distant memory. It's not like he wanted to put less effort in, he just didn't really have the time to anymore, as soon as he got the acceptance call, Pledis began to work him to the bone, starting with signing a contract that basically said that they owned him for the next 7 years. Dodgy, but he signed anyway.

There were a lot of practices, photoshoots and recording sessions. Pledis wanted to make his debut as soon as they could - so it wouldn't distract from the hype around their planned boy group 'Seventeen'. Mark didn't know much about the project, but he did know that Seungkwan and Vernon were both members of it. Unfortunately, this meant that everything was hectic while Mark and his team scrambled to meet the deadline that was only 2 months away. Mark all of a sudden started to get less sleep and way less time to devote to Yuta, not surprising but Mark was going to go on a murderous rampage if he missed the release of 'love story'.

Speaking of Seungkwan and Vernon, Mark had become very close with Seungkwan- ever since the incident in the lobby of Pledis Entertainment, they'd hit it off and they spent a lot of time together (apparently, much to Vernon's dismay). Mark wasn't sure how someone could be so oblivious, Vernon was clearly in love with Seungkwan and he'd never even met the man in real life before. Sometimes, it felt like he knew Vernon personally, seeing as Seungkwan never shut up about him. No matter what, their conversations would always end up being about Vernon. Finding it endearing, Mark had very little issue with letting Seungkwan vent about his best friend,, , the only problem was when Seungkwan was as oblivious to his feelings for Vernon as Vernon's feelings for Seungkwan.

It was so frustrating, they could be the perfect set of boyfriends if they started dating (second only to the absolute power couple him and Yuta would be) but they were so unaware of each other, that it was tragic. Mark even created a ship name: Verkwan. Watch it get popular. Seungkwan's eyes practically sparkled when he talked about Vernon; there was nothing the American could do wrong in his eyes. He was also may, a tiny little bit jealous of their relationship, Mark desperately wanted that for himself.

Mark was going to debut as a rapper, his first single being something he'd written a while ago, but the staff liked it enough to use it anyway. The producers were working to create the final backing track for him to rap over while he was swamped with concept photoshoots (but only after a lot of hair and beauty appointments, including the ones where his body became completely hairless) and interviews. At first it was annoying that there interview were shallow and monotonous, but after a while, Mark found it advantageous that the questions were repetitive- that way Mark could gauge how long until the interview would be. He had fun at these interviews, but there were only so many ways one can say that they were born in Canada.

A few weeks later

If Mark had previously stated that any other day was the best day of his life, then he would like to apologise,, , because he was wrong. Today was the best day of his life. Even if it was Valentine's day and he was yet again, alone. Nothing could possibly ruin his mood, 'Love Story' was even better than what Mark had anticipated. He found that he could listen to Yuta's voice for hours. So he did. The Canadian man had watched the music video so many times that he felt like he could draw Yuta completely from memory - including details like the shape of his collar and the creases on Yuta's trousers. Mark's favourite part had to be at the very end, where Yuta turns to the camera, giving it a little smirk- like he was letting you in on a secret. The first time he watched that part, Mark fell off the sofa, almost hitting his head in the coffee table.   

A few months later

On the day of Mark's debut, his anxiety spiked again. He'd spent a lot of time perfecting his single, the music video filming went well. Many sleepless nights working on the dance, only to drain the rest of his energy on vocal practices the next day. He got along well with all of the staff and still made time for his friends and university degree. On top of that, Mark still spent a lot of time on vlive watching Yuta's streams and of course, filming his own.